NorMel House Devotions

Titus 1:1 – An Apostle Paul identifies himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ. You might be wondering what the significance of this is, so, let’s dive in! Literally, the Greek word Apostolos means ‘to send off’. The Bible uses the word to refer to someone sent on a mission, but also in reference to specific people. An apostle of Jesus Christ is someone taught by Christ that witnessed to His life, teaching and resurrection. Jesus chose twelve men to be apostles, to spread the gospel and to establish the early Christian church. They were called and commissioned by Christ to teach, train, and lead the churches, establishing the doctrine of salvation. In Ephesians 2 Paul tells us that we are all one in Christ, “Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.” (Ephesians 2:20). In Ephesians 4 we learn that the apostles were sent “to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12). In Matthew

  Titus 1:1 Read Romans 6 Paul starts the letter to Titus with a surprising amount of information packed into his greeting. The first few verses tell us quite a bit about who he is and why he is writing. He starts off with telling us that he is a slave of God. Our translation uses the word servant but the original word, doulos, actually means slave. This is significant because he’s inferring that although he used to be a slave to sin, he has been bought by the precious blood of Jesus Christ and now is a slave of God. If we turn to the book of Romans, chapter six, Paul talks about what this means. He tells us, “For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.” He goes on to say in Romans 6:16, 18, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey Him as slaves, you are slaves to the one who you obey… You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”